Naziha al Dulaimi

Naziha al-Dulaimi was an Iraqi feminist, communist and pacifist activist and politician. She was born in Baghdad in 1923 to a Baghdadi Jewish family. She studied medicine at the Royal College of Medicine, where she was one of the few female students. She joined the Women's Society for Combating Fascism and Nazism and later became a member of the Association of Iraqi Women. She also became a full member of the Iraqi Communist Party in 1948 and participated in the uprising against the colonial Portsmouth Treaty. She wrote a book called The Iraqi Woman, which focused on the plight of women from different classes and backgrounds. She founded the League for Defending Iraqi Woman's Rights, which later became the Iraqi Women's League, and served as its president. She was a leading figure in the nationalist struggle against the British-backed monarchy and supported the 14 July Revolution in 1958. She became the first woman minister in Iraq and the Arab world, serving as the Minister of Municipalities from 1959 to 1960 and then as a Minister of State without portfolio in 1960. She advocated for women's rights, social justice, national liberation and world peace. She faced persecution and imprisonment under the Ba'athist regime and fled to Germany in 1970. She died in Herdecke, Germany in 2007. She is considered one of the early pioneers of the Iraqi feminist movement and one of the most influential women in Iraqi history.